The author examines various areas of audio culture of the twentieth century - the formation of artistic and journalistic radio broadcasting, the history of recording and sound in cinema - both in their independent development and in the general process of organizing the exchange of sound information. For the first time, the work at the microphone of outstanding masters of theater and cinema - Vsevolod Meyerhold, Alexander Tairov, Andrei Tarkovsky, Anatoly Efros, Rosa Ioffe, Igor Ilyinsky, Erast Garin and their colleagues. The history of audio culture of the 20th century and its directions is analyzed, as well as the art forms of sound reflection of reality that appeared at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries - arsacoustics, etc.